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Salary: USD 170,000 - 190,000 / annual
Beacon Biosignals is transforming precision medicine for the brain through at-home EEG platforms for clinical development and diagnostics. The Datastore team sits at the heart of Beacon's platform, defining the foundational data model and serving as the centralized repository and API for brain data collected from clinical studies.
You will join as a Staff Software Engineer focused on designing and scaling backend systems for data infrastructure. This role emphasizes PostgreSQL data models, Kafka-driven event pipelines, and the GraphQL API that makes scientific and clinical data usable. You will lead the design of complex systems within the Datastore rather than individual components, own the pipelines that deliver dataset snapshots into the warehouse, and collaborate across platform, application, and scientific teams to implement APIs that unlock new workflows.
Beacon is hiring two engineers into this role with different centers of gravity. One will focus on breadth: event pipelines, GraphQL API, core data models, and third-party integrations. The other will focus on depth in PostgreSQL (data modeling, performance tuning, operations) and supporting all engineers in developing schemas and access controls that protect clinical data. You should indicate which profile you are most drawn to in your application.
Key aspects of the system: The GraphQL API is generated from the PostgreSQL schema using PostGraphile, so schema decisions are API decisions. Row-level security is enforced on effectively every table because clinical data from different studies and partners shares one schema. RLS predicates get injected into queries, making query plan reasoning more complex than typical environments.
Success in this role means leading design and architecture for complex projects within the Datastore, partnering with product managers and scientific stakeholders to translate requirements into new integrations and solutions, debugging problems that cross system boundaries, and mentoring other engineers. You will draft RFCs to lead technical design phases, plan your own work and contribute to team planning, and leverage feedback to improve operational robustness and ease of use.
Beacon maintains robust asynchronous work practices for a first-class remote experience, with in-person office hubs in Boston, New York City, and Paris.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 7+ years of backend development experience, including at least 3 years focused on data platforms and backend infrastructure for data-centric applications (transactional systems, event pipelines, and APIs)
- Highly proficient in at least one technical area: data modeling, distributed systems, API design, or database engineering
- Strong proficiency in SQL with production experience working with PostgreSQL as an application database; fluent in writing and tuning queries, comfortable reasoning about schema design, indexes, and query plans
- Hands-on experience with data streaming and event processing using Kafka or equivalent (RabbitMQ, Pulsar, Amazon Kinesis)
- Proficiency in Julia or Python; Julia is a core Datastore language and experience is a strong plus but not required
- Experience deploying and operating services in containerized environments with familiarity in Kubernetes and Infrastructure as Code tools (Terraform and/or Helm)
- Track record of mentoring engineers and improving how a team works
- Collaborative mindset and excellent written and verbal communication skills, especially in asynchronous and remote-friendly environments
- Self-directed approach with track record of thriving in hybrid or fully remote teams
- Experience with or interest in LLM-assisted or agentic coding tools in production settings
For the Datastore Systems profile:
- Ability to lead design across the breadth of the platform
- GraphQL and TypeScript/JavaScript (Node.js) proficiency
- Experience designing event-driven pipelines end to end
For the PostgreSQL & Data Modeling profile:
- Deep PostgreSQL expertise: fluent reasoning about query planner, index selection, and EXPLAIN (ANALYZE)
- Data modeling expertise: designing schema, entities, relationships, and constraints; modeling time for clinical results that get re-scored and corrected
- Schema evolution under load: zero-downtime migrations, dual-write transitions, lock avoidance, backfill and verification
- PostgreSQL production operations: upgrades, replication, backup and restore, connection pooling, bloat and vacuum behavior, extensions
- Ability to teach and document so the team understands the schema
